TV show features creepy castle in Port Townsend

Travel Channel’s
“Ghost Adventures” team found plenty of unexplained phenomena at Manresa
Castle, including a door that swings open, a chair that tips on its own
and unexplained footsteps.

By Rob Owen

Special to The Seattle Times

For an episode of Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures” filmed earlier this year at Port Townsend’s Manresa Castle, series host and investigation leader Zak Bagans had better luck than on a visit to the Pacific Northwest last year.

“There was a couple in a suburb of Seattle claiming they had demons
in their house, and we came away with zero evidence,” Bagans said,
“which just goes to show that if we don’t find anything, we still
present the episode.”
The
“Ghost Adventures” team found plenty of unexplained phenomena at
Manresa Castle, including a door that swings open, a chair that tips on
its own and unexplained footsteps.

“I
love castles and I’m so intrigued by castles,” Bagans said. “I’ve spent
time in castles in Scotland, Ireland and Romania, so when I find a
castle in America that has hauntings attached to it, I’m all over it.”
“Ghost Adventures” recounts the early history of Manresa Castle,
which was completed in 1892 as the home of Charles and Kate Eisenbeis.
Charles was a businessman and the first mayor of Port Townsend. In later
years, the building was used as a vacation spot for nuns teaching in
Seattle schools and as a training college for Jesuits before becoming a
hotel in the late 1960s.
Several online histories of Manresa suggest some of the castle’s
legends were invented by a bartender at the hotel. The website for the Olympic Peninsula Paranormal Society
couldn’t find historical evidence to support legends of a priest who
committed suicide at Manresa and a woman who killed herself when her
lover did not return.
Bagans said he was particularly interested in Manresa because of two elements he thinks may be linked.
“I was really intrigued by the mysterious child’s coffin and body
found in the Eisenbeis crypt and trying to find out who is this little
child,” Bagans said. “And there was a housekeeper violently attacked by
what she calls a ghost and she was punched in the face … and she went
home and photographed a very distinct bruise [that could have come from a
child based on its size] on her leg. And there have been so many
reports of a little child’s spirit that I think there’s a mystery there
that needs to be solved and a possible link between the experiences in
the castle and the child’s body in the Eisenbeis crypt.”
As for those who doubt the possibility of the paranormal, Bagans ignores the naysayers.
“We don’t do this to prove ourselves to other people,” he said. “We
do this because we believe. We’re in season 11 [of the show] and if we
got hung up trying to prove stuff to everybody, we wouldn’t be where
we’re at today. … We focus on our massive fan base around the world. …
You watch everything with an open mind and it’s up to you what you
believe. We know it’s real, it’s true, and we do not fabricate
anything.”
Bagans
said Manresa Castle was completely unoccupied during his team’s
investigation, which he said found a “very high level of hauntings”
compared with some other locations.
“Port Townsend was just really a relief from other locations because
it was in its own little world,” Bagans said. “The castle reminded me of
being in Europe. It was just a truly mystical place and very, very
cool. I loved it.”

Freelance writer Rob Owen: RobOwenTV@gmail.com or on Facebook and Twitter as RobOwenTV.